dinosaurnotes

[dinosaurnotes]

#3

February 3rd, 2003: i feel today that my actions will be charged with symbolism

Comic #3 is an elaborate allegory on modern education and how humanity has lost itself in the futile pursuit of "being right" instead of "achieving truth". Also, on how not to anger the Teather Pantheon.1

In this play our protagonist2 a dimensional-travelling Dinosaur is thrown into a new world, barren of all features and leans on the fourth wall by announcing the importance of himself in the upcoming scenes. He then gasps, as the Gods of Dramatic Importance frown upon premature self-reference. It is in this moment that T-Rex loses all of his powers and returns to his previous, powerless existence as a middle school theater teacher.

The infinite, featureless plane is too much for the underpowered reptilian brain to cope and the mind fills the conscience with a vision of the past, masquerading as the present. The scene is Prof. Rex, teaching his pupils about the representation of complex gender problems with easy-to-understand allegories and balsa wood. The professor tries to trick his students into paying attention by giving subtle clues of what the next test will be about. He uses the word puzzle as a hint, hoping at least one student will be able to understand it.

However, the young Utahraptor is quick to figure out the evil teacher's ploy and counters with an alternative explanation: that the allegories are better suited to a philosophical problem, rather than a social one. This throws a metaphorical curveball to the EveryDino, since this is a false memory, created ex nihilo. His mind, under this threat of breaking the illusion, quickly counteracts with reinforcement of the first argument, seemingly incorporating the student's statement as part of his own.

At the end we see the depowered Dino, realizing his imminent death, alone in an unknown plane, foolishly uses his dying breath to berate the nonexistent student, congratulating his useless voctory in the argument.

The moral of the story is to always carry some fruit to appease the gods and distract them from their duties. Please travel safely through the dimensions.

Dibs on using it as a band name ↩︎

A protagonist (from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής (protagonistes), meaning 'player of the first part, chief actor') is the main character in any story, such as a literary work or drama. The protagonist is at the center of the story, typically makes the key decisions, and experiences the consequences of those decisions. ↩︎

[dinosaurnotes]

#2

February 2nd, 2003: a rare pleasure indeed

I must guard against such self-absorption in the future

So1, according to the magnificent and updated Collier's New Encyclopedia) (emphasis mine):

ABSORPTION, the act, operation, or process of absorbing, sucking in, or swallowing anything, or otherwise causing it to disappear in another body. Absorption by organized bodies is the taking up or imbibing, by means of their tissues, of material suitable for their nourishment.

With this very limited definition, the phrase "self-absorption" raises an interesting question: What would it look like to disappear in my own body? This line of reasoning must be some kind of paradox2 or the easiest way to create a microscopic black hole.3

Also, if I were to disappear in my own body, where would I go? We're clearly beyond the comprehension of physics, and philosophy is pretending to be asleep so it doesn't have to deal with our dumb question. Fine, let's go for the straight-up whacky4: I propose the entire body gets transported to (become) a new universe. This would be a very interesting thing for the first universe, as it now has a net decrease in matter and energy, thus violating the first law of thermodynamics5 and screwing up thousands of students theses in a single stroke.

On the other hand side, the recently appeared body might be, as I suggested, a whole new universe. When I was little, I read a book about black holes and the (then) state-of-the-art knowledge about them adapted for kids. According to them, there are theoretical models about how black holes can become "bubbles" of the universe and separate to form a whole new universe. Right now I can't seem to find the name of this hypothesis (or even whether it's accepted in the scientific community), but it always struck me as a neat way of escaping in a sci-fi setting.

Maybe escaping from this universe means you have to be in a new universe and therefore creates one. It's not that you go to that ether between universes6, is that you must be in a universe to escape to, and one will be created if you need to exist. The solution is7

Dip the tea bag in water at ~97°C (just below boiling) right now ↩︎

specifically, the "Doc Brown" kind, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum, and destroy the entire universe! ↩︎

this one would be interesting. The wikipedia article on Schwarzschild radius suggests that a black hole with the whole mass of Mt. Everest would measure less than a nanometre (1x10-9 m), so a black hole with the mass of a human (say, 100 Kg) must be very, very small. Perhaps it would radiate away in a matter of seconds, but I have no hard data on it right now. ↩︎

nothing after this should be considered even remotely scientifically rigorous. Unless it wins me a Nobel, then I call dibs on these words. ↩︎

which itself is the law of conservation of energy in terms of a thermodynamic system. As Beakman pointed out, "everything must go somewhere". ↩︎

mostly because asking what is "outside" the universe? has no sense, as you're literally asking to know the location of space out of space itself. It's a bit more complicated than that, but let's leave it here for now. ↩︎

According to this site, you've read for 2 minutes and 56 seconds, and should take the tea bag out of the cup for a perfect brew. GO TAKE IT OUT AND ENJOY YOUR TEA ↩︎

[dinosaurnotes]

#1

February 1st, 2003 - awesome fun times!

Is stomping really the answer to your problem(s)? is an interesting question. For one, common sense tells us is a good idea to "let some steam out" as if we were some sort of Stirling Engine and it's easy to figure out ways of venting, even without talking. However, there seems to be several disagreements over whether venting anger and frustration is a good idea1. Apparently, venting is not a good solution

However, venting (or the lack of) might not be the problem at hand. Maybe, just maybe, we're stuck in a situation with lots of empty beer cans and holy shit these discarded pieces of aluminum or tin-plated steel are occupying a lot of space, only a fraction of which is solid matter. Apparently, whether they hold 3552, 4733 or4 an5 infinite number of mililiters, they just can't perfectly occupy all available space in a box.

Then, stomping really is the answer to the problem at hand! QED

and over whether humans are, in fact, Stirling Engines; apparently farts do not count as expanding gases for engineering purposes ↩︎

12 US fl oz. ↩︎

16 US fl oz.; a standard US pint, substantially less than an imperial pint. This creates an interesting solution for bars, and a disappointing one for the prospective drunk: the 2 (US)-pint glasses are marked at the 973 mL volume with extra space for the foam crown. These are often sold and marketed as "liters of beer", even though technically you're only getting 97.3% of it on beer. ↩︎

An Imperial pint is 583 mL. Unfortunately, even though this solves the problem of the "2-pints-sold-as-one-liter", it has a much larger margin of error than the American pint when converting to the superior SI (+16.6% instead of -2.7%). Granted, these become of little importance after the second or third pint (either) has been consumed. I'm fun at parties. ↩︎

For those confounded by the superior IS units, an Imperial pint is 20 imperial fl oz or 19.2 US fl oz. ↩︎